Print Page - My Cave ?

Title: My Cave ?
Post by: Neil H on July 29, 2011, 04:39:33 AM

Being from SA, unfortunately most of the resources mentioned here on CFO are not available to me ..... so I have had to take the information here and apply it to SA conditions ..

I have bought a small Bar fridge .... measuring some 90cm tall, 60cm wide and 60cm deep

the thermostats warmest setting was 5 deg C .... too cold

i have bought a commercial thermostat which has a range from -35 to +35 degrees.... I will be putting this in and setting the temp to about 13 degrees.

For moisture i intend having some sort of open water source and a cloth hanging in the water to aid in evaporation ...

I have a digital thermometer which will give me constant information on the temp of the cave ....

is there anything i may have missed with the cave design???

Title: Re: My Cave ?
Post by: Gürkan Yeniçeri on July 29, 2011, 05:34:05 AM

Hi Neil,

I think you've covered all basis.

The water for the humidity should have some salt in it though I lost the exact ratio.

Title: Re: My Cave ?
Post by: Neil H on July 29, 2011, 06:49:00 AM

Thanks Gürkan,

why should the water have salt in it?

is this to stop bacteria in the water ?

Title: Re: My Cave ?
Post by: Gürkan Yeniçeri on July 29, 2011, 10:59:54 AM

OK with a bit of search, I found the entry

https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,2684.msg25515.html#msg25515 (https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,2684.msg25515.html#msg25515)

Basically, 2tbsp of salt in pure water (ironing water) will keep the humidity at 75%. I have done this and works.

IWantTheGold explains it here:
https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,2684.msg25521.html#msg25521 (https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,2684.msg25521.html#msg25521)

Title: Re: My Cave ?
Post by: Trey Magnus on July 29, 2011, 10:54:49 PM

Sodium Chloride (table salt) yields in the 75% range but if you can find some Potassium Chloride (sometimes used in water softeners) it will give you closer to the 86% range at cave temperatures. These need to be overly saturated (slushy mixture) solutions to work properly.

There are other compounds that yield different humidity levels. see link below

http://www.omega.com/temperature/z/pdf/z103.pdf (http://www.omega.com/temperature/z/pdf/z103.pdf)

Title: Re: My Cave ?
Post by: Neil H on July 31, 2011, 06:16:58 PM

OK so some pics of the cheese cave, all cheese is now in the cave and ageing nicely i hope ....

Any comments MOST welcome

Title: Re: My Cave ?
Post by: GlennK on November 19, 2011, 03:01:09 PM

Those are some great looking cheeses in there. What are they?

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GENERAL CHEESE MAKING BOARDS (Specific Cheese Making in Boards above) => EQUIPMENT - Aging Cheese, Caves => Topic started by: Neil H on July 29, 2011, 04:39:33 AM